Dark Menace: Novelist Sir Cedric Brough and chums tour the Black Museum. Many years earlier Sir CB's daughter mysteriously disappeared without trace...
Allow me to continue with brief descriptions of the stories in this excellent Birkin book I just finished. A solid collection of horror/macabre.
Happy As Larry: Effie Barlow, 25, from Brisbane, visits Fazeley, the stately home owned by her grandfather's nephew. Upon arrival, she meets the elderly caretaker, gruff Miss. "Mardie" Manor and her friendlier sister Julia Grylls. But who is "Larry" and why is he kept out of sight?
S.O.S.
Colonel Cripps is worried about his best friend "Manders", or Major Manderville Colville, to give his full name. Both are bachelors getting on in years; Manders has developed stomach pains and his drinking is getting worse. A horror story about alcoholism.
The Jungle
The young Freeman children, Archie, Aubrey and Patsy leave their home at 14 Elm Road to go blackberrying on the wasteland (which they call "the jungle") where a new housing estate is to be built. Lonely, annoying, only child Ernie Lesley decides to "accidentally" show up and inflict his presence upon them. The kids don't take too kindly to this....
T.I.M.
Poor 5 year old Jimmy tries to phone for help for his mother, Elspeth Martineau, who's suddenly collapsed after a cerebral thrombosis. Just before passing out, she asks him to call "Dr. Tim" Rye". You can really feel the poor tot's frustration...
The Life Giver
Wealthy, childless Margaret Tenterden, wife of a wandering playboy husband, has invited plain New Zealander Julia Ives to spend Christmas with her. Her other guests are Dr. Kurt Goebling formerly of Germany in it's darkest period and now residing in Brazil, and his nurse Eva Schwarz. Mrs. Tenterden's newly built mansion rests on the " a rugged, narrow peninsula which stabbed out from the coast of county Clare" and has a hospital building attached, just in case it should be needed....
Don't Ever Leave Me
Roman building contractor Guiseppe Ricci has started excavation on some wasteland "between Rome and the airport" for a new block of flats. However, the excavation has been temporarily halted due to the finding of an ancient tomb. He bribes a few of his men to quietly bury the thing the next day, to "escape entanglement with interfering professors and a consequent hold-up in the completion of his contract". In the meantime, he has a bigger problem, breaking it off with his mistress Anna Rizetti, on the order of his future father-in-law, very wealthy Antonio Barbieri, so he can marry his strait-laced daughter Claudia.
The Yellow Dressing Gown
Unhappy Lilian Hammerton, wife of philandering Jason and mother of little polio-stricken Henrietta, decides to take a look at her crystal ball and see what her "modest psychic powers" can see. This is unfortunate as she sees something extremely unpleasant. I guessed the "surprise" right off, but it was still a pleasure to read.
Waiting For Trains
A brief introductory paragraph leads us to the main story of Lieutenant George Barrow, railway transport officer at the border control town of Dresselberg after the end of actual hostilities of WWII. Early one morning, a "special train" stops briefly at his station, filled with White Russians who had been conscripted into the German army and now being forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union and certain death. As this is based on actual events, it's even more horrific.
The Lord God Made Them All
Greystoke Towers is an expensive mental institution for the upper class. Jane Purdey is due to be released soon; her friend Zellie Seal is not happy about that and decides to take action.
The Accessory
66 year old Uncle Roland relates his last encounter with an old senior classmate, Will Mitchell, to his niece Charlotte and her husband Graham.
Simple Simon
Picture it: 1860s Scotland (?): Lord Simon Tamberley is not a nice man at all. "Somehow, he'd developed a savage, brutal streak" which he inflicts on poor Tom Bowman, young poacher in the making.
Siren Song
Seven-month pregnant Bella and Douglas Foster hire a caravan to celebrate their third anniversary. They plan to explore Salisbury and it's cathedral the next day, but before they can, an intriguing flying saucer lands nearby and they can't help going inside. Why, I can't imagine, as I'd run as fast as I could in the opposite direction...